BayAreaKiteboarding.com

sorry to add to your already crowded beaches, but I may be moving from Ireland, to your beautiful city for a year or two. I'm an experienced kiteboarder, and am pretty safe, and have liaised with city authorities in Ireland to keep beaches open, etc.

I'd like to get your feedback and help for a few questions:
From which direction are the prevailing winds in the sf bay area? If I can live anywhere (within commuting distance of downtown) that's also good for kiting after work, where's a good base to be? Is one side of the city getting most of the good wind?

Do you get wind most of the year?

Where's a good place to buy second hand gear (North, slingshot, etc)

How friendly are the SF kiteboarders? Do you meet up for pints after a good session?

If any of you are ever planning to go to Ireland, we've got some great beaches.....

Hello, and welcome.
From downtown SF, the closest spot would be crissy, or across the bay in berkeley or alameda. Alameda is a decidedly less windy spot but is beginner friendly. A little south of sf is third ave and coyote point. This forum has a good database on locations here: https://www.bayareakiteboarding.com/viewforum.php?f=23
the windy season is best in spring here, lessening through summer and fall. if you're a little bit crazy you might have opportunities for storm kiting in the fall and winter as the weather gets nastier.
As for used gear, simply talking to other kiters is a good way to find stuff. Just show up at one of the spots on a windy day to meet people, I think you will find a mostly friendly bunch.

Uh....basically, you are stoked if you end up here moving here.

Just like Ireland, the wind blows west to east off of our coast and inland. Rather than the gulf stream which plows into Ireland, we get a temperature difference between the cold Pacific Ocean and the warm inland valleys so it sucks wind across the coastal area and the San Francisco peninsula sticks up like a boner right through the middle of this great wind generating difference and has water on all sides of it, plus a massive river flowing towards the bay which also gets great wind, and we have waves on the coast.

Basically you can live anywhere within commuting difference to SF and be in a great place. From SF downtown you have pretty much 6 different sites to ride within 15-30 minutes, and then in an hour you have about 6 others ranging from gnarly waves to the redneck riviera of Sherman Island in the Sacramento River Delta and inland lakes - even lake tahoe! I'm not sure what to say, live as far north as San Rafael, as far south as San Jose (or Gilroy, if you like garlic and mexican food), as far east as Sacramento and as far west as, well, San Francisco (or Maui). Asking which place is the best to live in the bay area for kiting is like asking someone from your homeland how the weather is outside or how hard it is raining - everyone will have something to say about it but the reality is that is it raining and the weather is shitty. Same thing here, wherever oyu live it will be good, unless you live in Daly City or Colma but that has nothing to do with kiting.

The main season is from end of March until around October-November, and then the months inbetween we get great surf with offshore winds. But even during the November to March time period people go for kite holidays in Mexico and get skunked only to hear that everyone here in SF was out riding during a a good storm.

People are pretty friendly here. If you are nice to people, people are nice to you. I'm not sure what else to say. It's a good vibe here.

We have so many places here that there is not really a central spot people go for pints afterwards. Actually, people usually bring booze with them to wherever they are riding and just hang out on the beach or in the car park afterwards and party together. Some places we even have kegs of beer, DJs playing music and BBQs at night and I saw some strippers once do a photo shoot at the dock one night after kiting (actually there were people kiting behind the strippers in the moonlight hucking 20 meter high kiteloops). No smokey pubs.... but with DJs, kegs, strippers, and moonlight kiteloops you won't really be complaining.

For used gear you can find it here on this website or go to www.craigslist.org where you can find pretty much anything you want to find in the bay area (I mean, really, anything), even a great deal on your friends stolen kite gear.

Hope this was helpful and look forward to seeing you when you get here.

You're going to different responses based on preferences (there are numerous great places to ride around in the Bay area), but the spot with the longest season and most kiteable days is Crissy Field, right in the city. If you're on your game and are dialed into the local program, it's rideable almost every single day for 7-8 months of the year. Crissy is for the experienced kiter, capable of dealing with strong, gusty conditions, heavy chop, ship traffic and strong currents, and proficient in self rescue. In the summer months, the wind can shut down on the inside (while in the channel it is blowing 20+) making getting back to the beach difficult or impossible. Most of us carry a handheld VHF radio so we can call the Coast Guard as a last resort if we are being ebbed out to sea or flooded down past Alcatraz. :shock: The upside is that Crissy can be and often is magic if you can deal with the risks and have the place figured out. And yes, we have beers on the beach after riding most nights - your welcome to join us when you get here!

If waves are your thing, then there are several great spots within about an hour's drive of the city, with everything from side-onshore to side-off - these spots work year round, and in the " off season " we typically ride the coast on prefrontal southerlies, and then on the NW clearing winds that follow.

Basically, this a great place to live, and not just for the kiting. =D>

to see what you are getting into helps with http://www.sfba.org/sites/sites.php embedded into google maps. So wherever you end up its never more than 20 minutes to a good spot. The summer is awesome. and its summer from 2 weeks ago to early November.

Just always ask a kite once you arrive on the beach as you would do anyway at an unknown beach. Every spot has its secrets you know better upfront ;-)

G

Hey Perukite,

Great writeup put a smile on my face for sure. makes me miss those days at the "redneck riviera" HA! And Evan, i think 3rd has equally as many kiteable days except warmer with a little more beer and a lot less hazards :P

and i didn't believe until i really looked in to it, but it seems as though waddell has the most kiteable days year round, but what does it matter once you get over 150/yr anyway.

As a surfer, I can chime in with Ramsey, Waddell cranks out a lot of wind. I didn't mention it because it's pretty far from the city, and you should already have advanced surfing skills for that spot. I don't know what the waves are like in Ireland, but in northern California they are notorious. Here is a great video of Waddell from who else but Caution crew.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyFCHkjw ... re=related

Thanks for all your help and replies guys, I'm feeling good about my move already! It seems like a great place to be, with lots of interesting quirks.

I'm looking forward to meeting you.

Question for philmcn-

Are there good spots around Howth? I get there sometimes on business and might have the odd chance to stay over the weekend, but don't know if there's some good local info and/or rental you could direct me to......